


A Splintered Soul

by whiteraven1606



Series: Loosely Connected [15]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Child Abuse, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Multiple Personalities, Teambuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-04
Updated: 2013-03-04
Packaged: 2017-12-04 06:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/707528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce doesn't have just Hulk inside his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Splintered Soul

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a prompt fill for a prompt about Bruce Banner having multiple personality disorder. I feel I have veered too far from the prompt to really call it a fill. I ended up with it being too much of pairing they didn't ask for and they never answered my question about weither they'd be okay with the threesome. I don't want to offend them and I can't find another prompt that this fits better. This was the prompt: http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/15292.html?thread=32560828#t32560828
> 
> I don't want to scrap this because I like it how it came out. I'll probably try again later to write them something that isn't in this series that fits better. :P
> 
> This references the part before this a little more heavily than I would have liked, but I left it anyway.

****

It had taken Tony some time to get used to waking up to either Clint or Bruce watching him. Sometimes both. Clint would tell him he was still surprised that Tony had accepted him after Loki's mind control. Bruce would just shrug and tuck his face into Tony's neck or shoulder and stay there.

Tony blinked awake and frowned at Bruce sitting cross-legged against the headboard with vivd green eyes. Tony rubbed his eyes and looked again, squinting to try to resolve what he was seeing. "Bruce-y?"

Bruce titled his head. "Why do you accept us?"

Tony was wide awake in a heartbeat. He eased himself upright, Clint still dead to the world between them, snoring softly. "Us?" He gestured to Bruce. "Who exactly do you mean by us?"

Bruce moved with a smooth grace as he slid to the edge of the bed and stood up. "I mean us." He padded over to the window and stood, looking out across the city. His green eyes reflected in the glass as he used the window to look at Tony. "I was sure you had noticed."

Tony pulled on boxers and yawned as he walked over to Bruce. "I wondered. I've been reading up. You're an alter, right? A dissociative personality."

Bruce nodded. "Yes, I think so." He shrugged. "I protect Bruce as best I can."

Tony rubbed the back of his neck. "So. You're the alter that knows all of the rest. Is that right?"

"Call me Banner." Bruce smiled softly as he turned towards Tony. "I think we need help. Hulk thinks you are our best bet."

Tony frowned. "I haven't gotten to explain to Hulk about Bruce getting shot and it not being something I did to him."

Banner put his hand on the window. "I explained for you. Hulk is sorry you were injured."

"Sure." Tony reached out to touch Banner's shoulder and froze as Banner snatched Tony's hand down and away from his skin. "Sorry."

Bruce's eyes faded to brown and he frowned at Tony. "What..." He looked down at their hands and dropped Tony's like it was on fire. "I...uh, Tony? What's going on?"

Tony gently herded Bruce back to bed. "Nothing bad. Come on back to bed. We'll talk about it in the morning."

Bruce let himself be guided. "I...didn't...I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No, Bruce-y."

Bruce frowned. "Don't call me that."

****

Tony woke the next time to an empty bed. He got himself through a quick shower and then went looking for coffee. He definitely needed coffee for this. He found Steve and Batsy sitting in the kitchen. "Morning."

Steve smiled that disgustingly earnest smile at him. "Good morning, Tony."

Tony just exchanged small smiles with Batsy and Tony turned his attention to the coffee maker. "Batsy, do you think you could come with me down to Bruce's lab?"

Bruce Wayne took a sip of his own coffee. "Is there a reason other than annoying poor Bruce?"

Tony turned towards him with a wide grin. "Which poor Bruce? You or Bruce-y?"

With a roll of his eyes, Bruce pointed at Tony with his cup. "Answer the question, Stark."

Tony gulped down some of his coffee and pulled a banana from the fruit drawer in the refrigerator. "I had a green eyed vistor last night."

Steve's head came up from his news stream. "What?"

Tony sighed and sat down across from them. "Have you noticed how Bruce-y's body language changes sometimes? He'll be all nervous and then is just fine in a blink of an eye?"

Steve cocked his head. "Yes..."

Tony tapped a split screen up on Steve's tablet and pulled up the wiki for multiple personality disorder. "I've been thinking Bruce has this for a while now and last night I had a short conversation with Banner, who has green eyes."

"Bruce has hazel eyes that normally look brown."

"They were glowing, Steve."

Steve expanded the wiki to fill his whole screen. He scrolled as he read quickly. "Oh. That would explain the bacon."

Tony and Batsy exchanged glances before Tony looked back to Steve. "What do you mean?"

Steve waved a hand absently. "Bruce took the bacon out and then put it back over and over until I offered to cook the bacon. I thought he was just wrapped up in his thoughts at the time."

Tony drank the last of his coffee. "He is usually good about being able to do a task while thinking."

Batsy took their glasses to the sink. "We'll go talk to him."

****

Tony watched Bruce dripping drops into his test tubes. "Bruce?"

Bruce blinked and straightened up, reaching for his glasses. "Yes, Tony?" He raised his eyebrows at Batsy standing beside Tony. "What can I do for you?"

Tony elbowed Batsy so he wouldn't just be blunt about it. "I had a thought about how Hulk could talk to you."

"What?"

"I want to video tape you." Tony waved his hands as he talked. "Think about it, you could ask him questions and he could do the same and then we record the answers for the other to watch."

Bruce rubbed at his eyes and took his glasses off. "He...Seriously?"

Tony nodded. "Yeah. We can do it in my workshop with the blast doors engaged. I'll even wait outside and leave you with just JARVIS and a video camera on a stand. What do you say?"

Bruce looked to Batsy. "You think I should, don't you?"

Batsy shrugged a shoulder. "I think you might never _like_ the Hulk, but being able to see he isn't only a green rage monster might do you some good."

Bruce frowned and then sighed. "Alright, fine. With the secondary doors engaged as well."

Tony smiled. "Awesome."

****

Hulk cocked his head at Spaceman on the screen across the empty area from him. "Spaceman?"

"Hey, there, Big Guy. We, uh, worked out a way for you to talk to Bruce."

Hulk rolled his eyes and huffed. "No want talk to Puny Bruce."

"Yeah, well, I think it'll do you all some good." Spaceman leaned forward. "You know I didn't shot you that day Bruce ran away. The gunman was trying to kill me, so I wanted to thank you for saving Bruce and me. Also, for coming back home."

Hulk smiled. "Hulk know now Spaceman not angry at Hulk." He pointed at the screen Spaceman was on. "This show Puny Bruce?"

"Yep. You ready?"

Hulk sat up straighter. "Hulk ready."

Puny Bruce showed on screen looking towards the side. "I still don't see why you think..." He looked towards Hulk. "You're recording, aren't you?"

"Just talk, Bruce."

Puny Bruce rolled his eyes. "Fine." He crossed his arms. "Uhm. Hello...Hulk. Do you even like that name?" He winced. "Sorry. I...uh, okay...Tony thinks we should ask questions and answer each other through video letters." He turned his head again. "Tony! I really don't think he is going..."

"You are doing fine, Bruce." Spaceman's voice sounded annoyed. "Please. Just ask him a few questions and then we'll do him and you can see what I'm always trying to tell you."

Puny Bruce turned back and pressed his lips together. "Why did you catch Tony the day of the invasion? I've never quite understood that." He turned his head again. "I dont' know what else to ask!"

"We'll just go with that." Spaceman reappeared on Hulk's screen. "Okay, Bruce isn't really good at this yet, Big Guy. You want to answer his questions?"

Hulk ran his fingers over his forearms. "I ask questions?"

"Yes. Answer his and then ask yours."

Hulk nodded. "I not mind name. Is good. Says Hulk is big and smalls should know where Hulk stand." He motioned towards where he thought Spaceman was from the smells in the room Hulk was in. "Spaceman liked Puny Bruce. Liked Hulk." Hulk showed his fists to the screen. "No one like Hulk. Betty worry. Want Puny Bruce. Bad Ross _hate_ Hulk. Only Tony ever see Hulk for Hulk."

Hulk huffed. "Ask Puny Bruce why try to kill us? Why go cold cold place to try?" He hunched forward slightly. "Banner say be nice." He sighed. "Ask if Puny Bruce need find cure?"

****

Bruce lay on Tony's workshop floor and stared up at the ceiling. "So, what? You want me to watch him now?" He sat up and rubbed at his hair. "Then, what? We change back again?"

Tony frowned on the screen. "You don't have to do this all in one afternoon."

Bruce groaned and scrubbed at his face with his hand. He picked up his glasses from the corner of Tony's workbench and put them on. "Just show me."

The screen changed and Bruce stared at the other guy up close. He'd never gotten a really good look since he couldn't bring himself to watch any of the news videos. Bruce stared at the Hulk, who looked so much like him. He blinked as the Hulk talked about being okay with his name and about Tony being the only one to like Hulk for himself.

"Ask Puny Bruce why try to kill us? Why go cold cold place to try?"

Bruce frowned at the incomprehension showing in Hulk's expression. "We hurt people. Lots...I don't want to hurt people. I don't...I don't want to become Father. The Arctic was the most remote place I could reach easily. I don't like the cold either."

On screen Hulk looked down and hunched forward. "Banner say be nice." He sighed. "Ask if Puny Bruce need find cure?"

Bruce's eyebrows came together. "Who do you mean, Banner? I didn't..." He thought hard, trying to remember if he'd been near enough to the surface to influence the other guy. "I..." He shook his head. "I needed to find a cure for a long time. I don't like hurting...killing. I needed to be..." He looked at the camera and lifted his head. "I needed to be in control. Not raging around destroying things."

Bruce rubbed the back of his neck. "Did you aim when you fell out of the sky? The guard thought you were awake when we fell." He gestured towards the blast doors. "I really _want_ to stay here, but having you makes me worry all the time that I'll hurt someone."

****

Tony leaned his head against the blast door as he listened to Bruce. "I feel like a heel."

Batsy sat a hand on his shoulder. "I don't think there's an easier way to show him. Bruce already knows he has one alter. This way he has proof he'll be able to see."

Tony nodded and banged his head softly against the door. "Think he'll forgive me?"

"I think it will turn out better than you think it will."

****

Hulk frowned as he watched Puny Bruce's answers and questions. He looked at the screen mournfully. "Hulk protect...Bruce." He huffed. "Banner explain."

Hulk shrunk and Banner frowned. "Well, shit." He waved a little at the camera. "He's gotten way more opinionated since he started eating. Uh, hi...I'm Banner."

Banner stood up and shook out his hands. "I don't get to use our body much." He sat back down. "You are probably yelling at Tony right now. That's okay. Tony didn't know about me until last night." Banner made a face. "The more safe we feel the less the walls between everyone hold up."

Banner sighed. "I know all of us. You're really strong, you know? I haven't had to make too many splits. There's Hulk, of course. He was born right after Mom died." Banner grimaced. "You aren't going to like all this being said where Tony can hear, but I think it is for the best."

He waved his hand at his own chest. "There's B.B., who is terrified of the stove. You don't remember why. He does and I'm sure you've noticed how you can only cook over an open flame that's not a stovetop burner? Yeah. There's Allen who does all the boring shit with the test tubes." He tapped his fingers against his temple. "I get really tired of test tubes. There's you and that's it. See? Not bad for our kind of childhood."

Banner rubbed at his forehead. "Hulk has been wanting to give you more of his memories. He thinks you'd like Lambert's as much as him. I get why you are scared of him, but we're safer now than _ever_."

****

Bruce woke up with a horrible headache. "Why do I feel like I'm hungover?"

Tony's blurry face appeared in his field of vision with his glasses held out. "You'll see. Up and at 'em, Bruce-y."

"How many times do I have to say not to call me that?"

Tony just grinned and Bruce moved to sit on Tony's workshop's comfy couch.

"Why are you in here now?" He watched the overhead screen change position to match their new location. "He didn't ask anything?"

"He answered your questions." Tony leaned in against him. "I thought you might want the company."

Bruce frowned and took the pillow Tony handed him. He wrapped his arms around it as the video started up.

****

Banner sighed. "Well, he didn't take that very well at all."

Tony looked worried. "Is he okay?"

"Just asleep." Banner frowned. "Not really hiding. More like that exhausted sleeping you do when the world turns on you."

"Yeah." Tony jerked his thumb towards the ceiling. "You want some dinner?"

Banner blinked. "What?"

Tony shrugged. "Bruce needs to rest and you came out, so....Dinner?"

Banner smiled. "Natasha is probably going to try to kill me."

"We'll just have to see, won't we?"

****

Tony headed up as Banner put on clothes that hadn't been through any transformations. Tony gathered up everyone into the kitchen by asking JARVIS to get everyone there.

Batsy was in the back looking smug and worried all at once. Steve as worried. Thor was smiling. Logan was bored. Clint was shaking out his hand like he'd just come from the range. Agent looked as bland as he always did when he didn't know exactly what Tony was about to do or say. Natasha was watching them all like they were about to explode.

"It isn't my fault."

Batsy broke up laughing as Agent frowned.

"Stark, what _exactly_ isn't your fault?"

Tony made a face as he gestured towards the door. "It was my idea, but I wasn't the one that shocked Bruce into..."

Natasha glared. "Did you manage to make Hulk mad?"

Banner appeared in the doorway. "It isn't the Hulk." He stood still as everyone stared at him. "I'm Banner. Tony said I could join everyone for dinner."

****

There were days Phil Coulson wanted to just go back to bed. "Banner?"

Bruce, no, Banner, turned his head towards Phil and all Phil could see were the very, very green eyes. "Yes?"

Phil blinked and then started moving, herding Thor first, and then the rest, towards the dining room. "I trust you know how to use utensils?"

Banner _laughed_. He nodded. "Sure. I'm nearly as old as Bruce."

Stark slung an arm around the man's shoulders. "Come on. Do you like mustard?"

Banner ducked his head slightly as he smiled. "Normal yellow is fine. None of that spicy crap though."

Phil went back and gathered up Nat from her seat on the barstool. "Come on."

She frowned as she stood up. "He's so different."

"Alters can be vastly different from each other."

She sighed. "I'm going to have to completely relearn him." 

Phil mentally smiled at him not being the only one unhappy with it all.

****

Clint hid in the vents after dinner. Banner showed up not long after and sat down cross-legged below Clint's vent.

"I'm sorry."

Clint frowned. "Why sorry?"

Banner leaned back against the hallway wall. "I'm not even sure."

Clint slithered out of the vent and flipped himself down to the floor. He sat down across from Banner. "Why not say anything before now?"

Banner's eyes widened. "Do you know what it took to convince me that we were safe enough here to let Bruce have a relationship?"

Clint titled his head. "No. You...what? You know everything they all do? You remember Hulk and Bruce?"

Banner nodded. "I get that we aren't normal." He snorted. "In any sense of the word."

"Hulk said Banner understood Steve's flashbacks one time. Is that true?"

"I do understand." Banner looked at his feet. "I've reinforced Bruce before when he needed to feel confident."

"When he takes his glasses off."

Banner smiled. "You've noticed."

Clint nodded. "You don't have problems with your eyesight. Why does Hulk?"

With a shrug, Banner stretched out one barefoot to touch the bottom of Clint's boot. "Bruce was injured just as Hulk was born. They both have problems. I wasn't affected. I still have our original eyesight."

Clint gently pushed on Banner's foot. "I'm weirded out by the idea of more than just Hulk inside you."

Banner touched the side of his nose. "I know. We can smell it."

Clint lifted his chin slightly. "You...That's why Hulk smells us after battles? Can Bruce do that too?"

Banner pushed on Clint's boot. "Yes, and Bruce is lots more comfortable with being aroused than I am."

Clint blushed and pulled his legs closer to himself and wrapped an arm around his knees. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Banner looked down the hallway. "Tony smells aroused most of the time. You only flash it when Bruce does something you find really attractive."

"Oh." Clint put his chin on his knee. "I don't know anything about how this works. Is Bruce just _gone_?"

Banner frowned. "No, no. I, uh, diagnosed us when we were about 12. I had just made Allen to deal with boring repetitive tasks that made Bruce think about horrible things because his mind was a little too still." He tapped his temple with a fingertip. "Bruce lost time to Allen and started feeling like he was falling apart. I took over one night and researched to see if we were going crazy like Bruce thought." 

Clint raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Banner shrugged. "Sort of crazy, what can I say? I adjusted Allen so Bruce was out enough that he knew time had passed, but he didn't _think_ about stuff."

"So? Bruce, what, thought that it was just him and Hulk?"

Banner nodded. "Bruce was trying so hard to be normal before the accident that gave Hulk the giant green form. I held us together and tried to give him that normal. He...we deserved it, I thought."

Clint nodded. "Then he was on the run."

"He was so scared." Banner sighed. "I had to bluster him and Hulk was having troubles with things triggering him."

"You've figured it out now, though."

Banner leaned back and smiled. "We're getting there. Bruce is just sleeping."

"He'll still be tired when he wakes up because you are using the shared body."

Banner pushed himself to his feet. "True. I ought to go to bed." He held out his hand to Clint. "Would you sleep beside us?"

Clint uncurled himself. "Let's go find Tony."

****

Tony shoved projects around in the air over his worktop. He kept glancing at the couch along the far wall. "J, do you think I did the right thing with Hulk and Bruce?"

"Controlled dissemination of information is almost always preferable to chaos, sir."

Tony frowned. "J?"

"Perhaps Dr. Banner would have worked it out on his own."

With a sigh, Tony flicked the air clear of his projects. "Yeah." He turned as his door disengaged the lock to slide open.

Banner and Clint came in and Clint palmed the door shut behind them.

"Hey, Tony."

Tony smiled. "Hey." He wrapped an arm around Clint as he more or less burrowed into Tony's side. Tony looked at Banner softly smiling at them. "Still asleep, huh?"

Banner shrugged. "He can be stubborn. Clint pointed out I'm not letting our body rest."

Clint put his cold, cold nose against the side of Tony's neck. "We want cuddles."

Tony leaned his head away from Clint. "You are so needy." He looked at Banner. "You sure you want me to touch you? You pulled away last night."

Banner came closer and touched Tony's chest near the arc reactor. "You smelled so very mad last night."

Tony gingerly touched Banner's shoulder. "I wasn't mad at you."

"I figured that out." Banner bent his head and looked up at him through his eyelashes. "Sleep?"

Tony giggled and pushed them both towards the door. He grabbed up Bruce's glasses as he followed.

****

Bruce blinked awake and then just kept blinking.

"Are you broken?"

He turned his head to see Clint sitting next to him, checking arrow shafts. "No?" He pushed up and frowned. "I can see..." He stopped and blinked again as his eyesight went blurry. "Never mind."

A hand from his other side held out a familiar blob shape.

"Thanks." Bruce put on his glasses and clasped his hands in his lap. "I..."

Tony poked him in the ribs. "If you say sorry or ask if you hurt one of us I will tickle you until I get a different alter to come out."

Bruce stared at him. "You...Tony!"

Tony smiled. "You've got appointments with shrinks today. Did you know what it takes to reinstate a dead guy's degrees to a different identity? A lot. That's all I'm saying."

"Batsy? You've talked Bruce Wayne into being my therapist?"

Tony ruffed Bruce's hair as he tried to pull away. "Batsy volunteered. It isn't like he's got much else to do while he recovers from blowing himself up."

Bruce rolled his eyes and turned towards Clint. "I really have more than just Hulk in here with me?"

Clint nodded as he put down an arrow and picked up the next. "Banner, the other one I've met formally was easy to tell apart from you."

Bruce had a flash of vivd green eyes looking at him from a video. "His eyes."

Tony smiled. "Yeah. I don't know if you remember, but he said there's a total of five counting you."

Bruce nodded. "I'm entirely too calm about this."

Clint touched his knee. "Bruce, you deal with stress by dissociating from it. That's how you got the extra yous in the first place."

Bruce had a flash of his Father beating him with a belt. "That wasn't just my doing." He blinked and looked at Tony. "Is Steve putting me off the team?"

Tony's eyebrows went up. "Do we need to have the everyone is a little broken on this team discussion again?"

Bruce barked out a harsh little laugh. "No, I guess not."

****

Steve pushed Bruce away from the fridge. "Sit down, Bruce. I'll cook."

Bruce took his coffee to the barstool along the other side of the counter and sat down. "Thanks. I have no idea why I can't get near the stove."

Steve glanced at him over his shoulder as he put the skillet on to warm. "Your other...Would Banner be able to tell you?"

Bruce shrugged. "Yes, but if it was bad enough I made a whole extra me to deal with it I don't know that I _want_ to remember."

Steve put the bacon into the skillet. "I'm glad you survived to become the man you are."

Bruce's cup hit the counter with a thump. "What?"

Steve pushed the bacon over to one side and added some eggs to the cleared part of the pan. "I...knew a soldier in the war that..." Steve frowned and covered the pan with a lid Tony had shoved at him one morning. He turned towards Bruce. "He retreated from the world. He didn't hear or see what was in front of him. There was nothing we could do to help."

Bruce nodded and turned his cup around in his hand.

"You did what you had to not only to survive, but also function." Steve turned back to the stove.

"I...wouldn't call that something to be glad about."

Steve pushed the food off onto a plate and took it over to Bruce. He tapped the end of Bruce's nose to make him look up. "I am very proud of you."

"Oh." Bruce stared at him for several moments before ducking his head as he blushed.

****

Bruce Wayne sat down and smiled at Dr. Banner fidgeting across from him. "You don't have to go along with Tony's suggestion on this."

Dr. Banner shrugged. "From what I know of your childhood I think you are probably one of the few that won't pity me." He looked up. "You aren't inclined to do that."

"True enough." He pressed a small throw pillow to the bandage across his stomach. "Do you want to start?"

Dr. Banner made a rude noise. "I wouldn't even know where to start."

"That's alright. Tell me why you don't like the cold, Doc."

****

Director Fury watched the Avengers, plus their two tag-alongs, gather for brief on the newest threat to Earth. Fury clasped his hands behind his back. "It is good to see Dr. Banner...what did Stark call it, strut?"

Agent Coulson stepped up to Fury's blind side and crossed his arms. "That's not him strutting, Boss."

Fury gave a half-smile. "Good for him." It was much, much better than the tiny mute little broken boy Fury had pulled away from his mother's dead body. He could still remember each time he'd moonlighted as a social worker. They had scarred him for life. "Get them focused."

"No problem, Boss." Coulson headed out to be the Avengers herder and Fury straightened his coat as he readied himself to follow.

****

**Author's Note:**

> I think this'll be the last of the prompt fills for a while. I can't get the subject lines right and I feel like I'm annoying the poor mod (who has been very nice, btw). I just hate not getting it right and having to repost the links. I reread the rules, but I have trouble making them make sense all at once. Yippee for dyslexia. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone that has kudo/commented/read this series. It was a lot of fun.


End file.
